The skin plays an important role in the immune system and consists of layers. Circulating T lymphocytes migrate to the skin under normal and inflammatory conditions. The cutaneous lymphocyte antigen (CLA) is considered a homing receptor for T cells with tropism for the skin. Santamaria-Babi, L., Eur. J. Dermatol. 14:13-18, 2004. CLA is a carbohydrate structure which is expressed on memory T cells as an epitope of the single cell-surface protein named P-selectin glycoprotein ligand-1 (PSGL-1) and facilitates binding of T cells to E-selectin, an inducible adhesion molecule expressed on vascular endothelium. See Fuhlbrigge R C, et al., Nature 1997; 389:978-81.
Several diseases of the skin are known to express high levels of CLA+ T cells, including atopic dermatitis, contact dermatitis, drug-induced allergic reactions, skin-tropic viruses and viral associated pruritis, vitiligo, cutaneous T cell lymphoma, alopecia aerata, acne rosacea, acne vulgaris, prurigo nodularis, and bullous pemphigoid. There is a need to treat such skin T cell mediated diseases.
The demonstrated in vivo activities of cytokines illustrate the enormous clinical potential of, and need for, other cytokines, cytokine agonists, and cytokine antagonists. The present invention addresses these needs by providing a method of treating such diseases by interfering with the actions of IL-31, a newly identified cytokine. IL-31, when over-expressed in mice, results in itching and dermatitis-like symptoms. Both skin-homing T cells and epidermal keratinocytes have been implicated in the pathology of skin diseases in humans.
The present invention provides such polypeptides for these and other uses that should be apparent to those skilled in the art from the teachings herein.